


Cat

by zeuswrites



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout: New Vegas
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-30
Updated: 2014-04-30
Packaged: 2018-01-21 08:56:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1545020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zeuswrites/pseuds/zeuswrites
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Raul Tejada never liked cats. Now that they're extinct is no time to start.</p><p>(contains no actual scenes, but does contain a mention of, animal cruelty.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cat

"What did they do?"

"Do?" Raul paused. "They didn’t _do_  anything. They just… were.”

"So people kept them… just because?"

"Well, they did chase vermin, but that was long before my time. People liked their company. Liked to have something to care for."

Elbow Grease made a  _huh_  sound at that, turning his attention back to the road ahead of them.

———————-

"Have you ever had a cat?" he inquired later that day, passing the bowl to Raul.

"We had a gray tabby… a striped one, that is. He was my mother’s. I suppose it died in the fire."

"What fire?", Elbow Grease asked, for once paying attention.

Raul looked down into his bowl and started eating.

————————

"What were they like?" Elbow Grease asked the first thing in the morning, and it spoke volumes of how used Raul was to the courier’s way of thinking that he instantly knew what he meant.

"I didn’t care much for them, personally. Bossy little things. They slept all day, everywhere, ate more than they weighed. And they didn’t care what you were doing, they would jump into the middle of it and demand attention. But always went wherever they wanted, and good luck getting them to come to you. And sometimes they just sat quietly and stared…"

Raul paused and looked at Elbow Grease with a squint.

"What?"

"Nothing."

————————-

The worst part of having a pet was that it would inevitably die.

One day, that little creature you put so much love and care into would get ran over by a drunk driver in front of your house, or get strung up by some bored teens, or would simply grow old and stop breathing. And in the end you would have to wonder, why didn’t the world care how wonderful it was? How loving, how cheerful, how it would nudge your hand with its nose when you were sad? Why was it so easy to kill and throw away something that meant the world to you?

And you would have to pay back with interest for all these moments where your friend fooled you into thinking the world was anything but cruel.

———————-

"Hey. Hey—- d’ya wan’ a cat?"

"They’re extinct."

"Yeah, buh— d’ya wan’ one? I’ll get ya… one…"

"Boss, if you’re going to be throwing up, don’t—- god DAMN it!"

————————

Raul didn’t like cats. More than once, he sold his mother’s fat vermin a kick when he caught it scratching his favorite chair, or throwing knick-knacks off the shelves. He didn’t understand why she kept the thing around - didn’t they have enough expenses?

After the bombs he would think,  _why did she keep_  me _around?_   He remembered all the grief he caused her, and every single tear she cried when she saw him through the bars at the Police station for the first time. 

They had a difficult life; little water to go around, few jobs, many mouths to feed. And she worked so hard, night and day. But she laughed when the cat jumped out of shadows to attack the tassels on her bathrobe, and she smiled when it was purring in her lap.

It had been more useful to her than he.

—————————-

Raul didn’t bother asking where the courier had been. He had wanderlust of the worst kind, and little else mattered to him. He disappeared for days on end, only to show up on Raul’s doorstep with a dead Gecko on his back and a bag of prickly pears for the brahmin as if nothing had happened. And if it was somewhere interesting, he was going to tell him anyway, no matter if he wanted to hear it.

There was a bruise on his neck, and a new look in his eyes.

Raul was just glad he came back at all.


End file.
